Selling Prepaid Cards With SiteWatch Helps Chain Cross-Market Different Profit Centers
- Great American Success Story Huntington Beach, CA
Challenge: To cross-market different profit centers at a busy 3-site chain while maintaining tight control.
Solution: Use SiteWatch to sell "cash value" prepaid cards that are good at any site or any profit center.
For years, Huntington Beach Car Wash sold a healthy volume of prepaid car wash ticket books. That suited owner Ric Russell and his management team just fine, since they liked the way books locked in customer loyalty. "The ticket books kept customers coming back," said JeeAnn Whitney, controller of the 3-site chain. "Plus, our commercial accounts really appreciated them, and people often gave the tickets as gifts."
Yet, despite these advantages, the books had their limitations. "The books always threw off our labor costs per car," said Whitney. "We'd count all the money for a book when we sold it, which made labor costs seem too low. On the other hand, when the tickets were redeemed and no money was entered into the system, our labor cost per car would be artificially high."
Then there was the fact that the books weren't very flexible. "The tickets were only good for a car wash, which meant that customers couldn't use them anywhere else on our site," said Whitney, noting that Huntington Beach locations are multi-profit centers with gas pumps, quick lubes, detail shops and boutiques.
Prepaid Cards More Flexible
Huntington Beach was able to keep -- and even enhance -- all of the benefits of prepaid books, while avoiding their limitations, by using its SiteWatch Cash Register System to sell scannable cards. "We put the cash value of the card in a separate folder, then credit the car wash or other profit center as the card is used," said Whitney. "This ensures that our labor costs per car figures are more accurate."
The Huntington Beach prepaid cards are charged with a cash value, rather than a specific number of washes, to make them more flexible. "This was very important to us," said Whitney. "We wanted a prepaid program that could move with the customer from profit center to profit center, since this would encourage impulse sales. Most of our prepaid customers are using their cards at more than one of our profit centers. They may buy a car wash, then go over and pick up something at the boutique. Or they'll use the card for a quick lube and a wash."
Encouraging impulse sales from prepaid cardholders is especially important, since research shows that they tend to spend more per purchase than other customers. "Prepaid card customers are less focused on price and more focused on what they want," said Whitney, who reports that her cardholders spend over $1 more per visit than other customers.
SiteWatch Makes It Manageable
Huntington Beach has been selling over 500 cards a month since it implemented its new prepaid program. (Most cards are sold for between $25 and $50.) These figures are particularly impressive in light of the fact that the chain offers no discounts or other incentives to prepaid customers. "People are buying this strictly as a convenience," said Whitney. "The cards save them time; they don't have to worry about how much money they have on them when they visit."
Customers also appreciate the convenience of being able to use their prepaid cards at any of the three Huntington Beach locations. "Being able to offer chain-wide prepaid cards is very important to us, because two of our sites are only ten minutes from each other," said Whitney. "We wouldn't be able to have this chain-wide control without SiteWatch. The computer ensures that all of our sites always have current prepaid files."
SiteWatch also provides Huntington Beach with tight control over prepaid sales, without involving a lot of paperwork. "The computer will only activate the cards when they've been entered into the system as a sale, so we don't have to worry about keeping them under lock and key before they're sold," said Whitney. "Plus, SiteWatch will automatically deduct the right value from a card as it's used, which eliminates a lot of opportunities for fraud or careless mistakes. The entire prepaid program is very easy to manage, thanks to the computer."
Huntington Beach also keeps paperwork to a minimum by not entering the names or license plates of prepaid customers. "This is done strictly by the cards," said Whitney. "We don't need to track the customer, the cards are like cash."
According to Whitney, the cards also offer and added image building benefit. "Our customers are all excited about cards," she said. "When they see the cards they tell us, 'Hey you guys are like Starbucks!' The cards have been like little billboards for Huntington Beach Car Wash."
The Bottom Line: Selling prepaid cards with SiteWatch has allowed Huntington Beach Car Wash to overcome the limitations of paper tickets for tighter control and more cross-over sales involving different profit centers.
